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Amazon announced and it was covered by the AP that Amazon is expanding it’s private label business with the introduction of AmazonBasics. It appears there are 30 products being offered so far (something we’ll track) and they fall into the Consumer Electronic ‘accessories’ category.

These look a little bit more branded than the private labels we’ve seen so far. For example, check out the logo on this cable: (click to enlarge)

And even these DVD-R’s are well branded:

This is a smart strategy for Amazon, but I know many sellers that compete in these categories (some are ChannelAdvisor customers) and this move highlights that Amazon is both a partner and competitor. The lack of that conflict, or neutrality in other words, is eBay’s biggest strategic advantage over Amazon. It will be interesting to watch as the Amazon/eBay battle contineus if a) eBay is able to take advantage of this strength/Amazon weakness and b) if it is enough to slow down Amazon’s awesome momentum right now.

What do you think? Chime in via comments!

SeekingAlpha Disclosure – I am long Amazon and Google. I am CEO of ChannelAdvisor where eBay is a strategic investor.